I am on sabbitcal in April so I thought I would share some of my favorite stores and poems. Debby Creasy shared this story with me some years ago.
Many years ago I lived in Baltimore and I had an old pickup truck and a boyfriend who lived 100 miles away on the Eastern Shore. Most weekends I would drive down to see him, leaving about 6 pm after finishing my Saturday shift at a health food store. This particular night was in winter, freezing cold with a howling wind, but I went anyhow (young love and foolishness).
I always stopped just before crossing the Bay Bridge to get coffee at a McDonald’s. For some reason that night I put my emergency brake on, and when I came back to the truck, it had frozen. I couldn’t move, except for a little in reverse. It was getting late, and before cell phones. I was panicked. Several high school guys who were just cruising around drove me to a nearby Exxon station where I explained my dilemma to the lone attendant there, a guy with greasy hair and a country accent. He said he would drive up to McDonald’s in about an hour, after he closed the station.
When he finally got there, I was sitting in my truck, freezing and crying, and with no way to let my boyfriend know where I was. My gas station angel finally showed up, and after about 15 minutes of struggling under the truck on the frigid parking lot, he miraculously freed the brake. He looked at me and my tear-stained face. “Sometimes we just cry,” he said. “I was watching an old movie before I came to work this afternoon, and I was crying.” His words were like a warm hug. And he wouldn’t let me pay him. Lesson learned.
